Early Warning, an on-line scheme that helps UK retailers to prevent CNP (card-not-present) credit card fraud, issued the alert last week announcing the existence of the new scam.
A fraudster will first search on the internet in order to discover the details of a particular limited company, including the postal address of the head office and its registered company number.
Armed with this information, it is then a simple exercise for the fraudster to access Form 287 on the Companies House website and effectively change the registered office for the limited company whose details they have obtained. The new registered address could be a mailbox address or even a short let residential property.
Once the form is completed and submitted, Companies House will then make the necessary amendments to its database. The fraudster is now at liberty to start opening trade accounts and ordering goods to be delivered to the bogus address. Companies House does not issue any confirmation of the address change.
Commenting on this new scam, Early Warning MD Andrew Goodwill said:
"Every Limited company should check their registered office details on the Companies House web site and this should probably be done every month or so. It is our belief that Companies House has no responsibility to validate the details contained in Form 287 and that it may even require legislative changes to get them to do so."
The innocent company whose details have been altered by the fraudster will only find out about the scam when the debt collectors arrive, or when legal action is initiated to recover the goods that have been fraudulently obtained.